
Foster Care Fortnight takes place 9 – 22 May and is The Fostering Network’s annual campaign which aims to raise awareness of fostering and show how foster care transforms lives. The theme for this year’s Foster Care Fortnight is #FosteringCommunities so that we can all celebrate the strength and resilience of fostering communities and everything they do to support and care for children. The Fostering Network will be running events, sharing content on social media, and promoting the transformative power of foster care.
Talking about how Children’s Health Scotland will be supporting Foster Care Fortnight 2022, Anne Wilson, Head of Development said: “We care enormously about helping foster carers transform the lives of children and young people and together we care about their health and wellbeing. Thousands of new foster families are needed every year to care for children so please join us this year to #FosterCommunities and celebrate Foster Care Fortnight. To complement the information and training we provide to foster carers, I will be delivering a webinar on Impact of Loss and Change on Tuesday 10 May.”
The Fostering Network will be running events throughout the two weeks across the UK with the help of lots of organisations. The full list of training and events can be found here. Children’s Health Scotland will also be hosting a training session during Foster Care Fortnight alongside Scotland’s Moving On project. This training session will discuss the impact loss and change has on children in foster care, including the impact on the child’s emotional wellbeing, and how Foster Carers can best support the child to manage these feelings. “Impact of Loss and Change” will take place on 10 May from 10am to 2pm. It is a free online training session which will require Zoom to participate. The session is targeted at foster carers. Email scotland@fostering.net to register.
Anne Wilson and Sarah Nelson, Children’s Health Scotland’s Care Experienced Children and Young People team, will be incredibly hard at work this May providing vital information and services for foster and kinship carers across Scotland. Some of their work this month includes:
- 3rd May: Face to Face workshop on Adolescence Matters with Kinship Carers in Midlothian (a new area for Anne and Sarah).
- 10th May: Loss and Change virtual workshop with The Fostering Network for their Foster Care Fortnight
- 12th May: ‘Managing the Healthcare needs and rights of Care Experienced Children and Young People’ virtual workshop with Foster Carers in Fife
- 17th May: ‘Getting it right for Care Experienced Disabled Children’ virtual workshop with Foster Carers in Fife
- 23rd May: supporting a kinship care support group in Clackmannanshire
- 27th May: ‘Consent and Confidentiality’ workshop. This workshop will be in healthcare settings with Foster Carers in Fife.
To find out how you can get involved with Foster Care Fortnight, please visit: https://thefosteringnetwork.org.uk/foster-care-fortnight-2022
To find out more about the information and training available from Children’s Health Scotland please visit www.childrenshealthscotland.org/service/children-and-young-people-in-and-leaving-care/
#FosteringCommunities #FCF22